7 Min Crispy Air Fryer Salmon Bites w/ Mango Salsa

This easy 7 minute Air Fryer Salmon Bites recipe with Strawberry Mango Avocado Salsa are so crispy and so good! Crispy on the outside, tender inside, our salmon bites are an easy recipe, with healthy salmon tossed in a smoky-sweet spice blend with a vibrant mango, strawberry and avocado salsa!

In under 10 minutes you can be eating this air-fryed to crispy perfection salmon recipe, because we all know hangry happens.

Listen, fish isn’t for everyone, previously myself included, but I’m working so hard to change that and it’s slowly becoming one of my favorite proteins! It’s light and flaky, always tender, and cooks SO fast. I thought I had a few good salmon recipes, but this is the best salmon I have literally ever had.

I love that it’s high in protein and when baked in the air fryer it’s texture is heavenly! One of my new FAVORITE recipes for salmon is our smokey salmon bites with a fresh mango salsa! They are perfectly tender and caramelized bite-sized salmon pieces. So GOOD! I could eat these salmon bites every day!

Two Years of Testing…

I’ve been testing our air fryer salmon recipe for over 2 years now and I’ve discovered the absolute best dry rub recipe that takes this salmon from delicious to down right addicting. In fact, it is the best easy summer dinner recipe ever!! Yes, it is possible to make salmon in the air fryer without drying it out and yes, even our kids, the seafood haters love it!

Fresh Strawberry Mango and Avocado salsa

Our fruit salsa takes a regular salmon rice bowl from good to amazing!

This fruit salsa is the kind of sweet topping even picky eaters love!

No oven, no mess, and totally weeknight-friendly! This is a quick, healthy dinner that doesn’t feel like just getting something on the table.

Ingredients for Salmon Bites

All you need are simple pantry staples to make this dry rub for salmon.

In the next section, you can see all the ingredients you will need for the mango salsa– you will want to hit the produce section for those ingredients. Here is everything you will need:

For the Salmon

• Salmon– Look for skinless salmon filets to save yourself time on skin removal then just cut them into evenly sized, small cubes !
• Brown Sugar– A hint of sweetness, but it also helps to caramelize into a mouthwatering crust on the salmon.
• Spices– Smoked Paprika, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, O

Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Chicken Burrito Bowl

Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Chicken Burrito Bowl is a quick and easy dinner recipe the whole family loves. A bright cilantro lime rice with flavorful Tex-Mex chicken, beans and lots of gooey cheese!

When we’re short on time and ingredients, this is a go-to meal at our house, and yes, you can totally swap any meats, beans or add-ins that you’d like! It’s like making a delicious Chipotle burrito bowl in the comfort of your own kitchen!

I’m finding that the older my kids get the more I desperately need quick and easy dinner ideas as we pretty much live a life of errands lately. It’s soccer, piano, clothes shopping because heaven forbid anyone stay the same size for more than a month and on and on. Anyone feel me?

Ingredients for Chicken Burrito Bowls

• Chicken Breasts: You want boneless, skinless chicken breasts and then chop them into bite-size chunks
• Oil: used to sauté the chicken
• Seasonings: Cumin, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper, Kosher Salt and Chili Powder
• White Rice: just simple long-grain white rice works great
• Garlic: adds flavor
• Chicken Broth: cooks the rice and adds more flavor
• Green Chiles: adds flavor
• Cilantro: adds bright herby freshness and flavor
• Lime: You’ll want to use the zest and juice for maximum flavor.
• Pinto Beans: Keep it simple by using canned beans. Swap for black beans if desired.
• Colby Jack Cheese: You can’t have a burrito bowl without the melty cheese! Colby jack is our favorite, but you can also go with Monterey jack or pepper jack.

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card down below. Once you serve up the chicken and rice, top with all your favorite burrito toppings. See section below for ideas.

Cilantro Lime Chicken Burrito Bowls

• Step 1: Chicken

Start by seasoning your chicken (onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt, pepper and chili powder) and then cook it in a little olive oil in your Instant Pot in “sauté mode”. You won’t need to cook it long, just enough to get a little sear on the outside, about 3 minutes.

• Step 2: Everything Else

Add the rice and garlic and stir it with the chicken for about 20-30 seconds. Then you add the rest of the ingredients (broth, cilantro, lime zest, lime juice and pinto beans) and change your Instant Pot to “high pressure”. Give everything a good stir and place the lid on the Instant Pot. Set the valve to “seal” and cook for 7 minutes.

Pasta Primavera Recipe

This delicious and easy Pasta Primavera recipe is perfect for a weeknight meal. Loaded with fresh veggies, flavorful herbs and tossed in a creamy sauce, it’s a crowd-pleasing and healthy dish that the whole family will love.

This last weekend I really wanted something light, but still yummy, and this Pasta Primavera Recipe was perfect. We are huge asparagus fans so anything with asparagus gets us excited. Although the dish has no meat, I really don’t think you miss out on anything. In fact, the husband and I like having meatless meals every now and again as long as all of the flavor is still there. I bet you could throw in some grilled chicken or shrimp for protein and that would be sooooo good!

What Makes Something Primavera?

Primavera is an Italian word that means “spring”. In the culinary world, primavera means a dish served with a mixture of fresh seasonal vegetables usually paired with a pasta and creamy sauce.

Ingredients for Pasta Primavera

I’m going to give you a list of the fresh vegetables that we like to use in this pasta recipe, but this is definitely a dish that you can make substitutions with your favorite veggies. Here is what you will need:

• Penne Pasta: Any bite-sized pasta can be used, other good options would be orecchiette, rigatoni, farfalle or fusilli.
• Vegetables: Asparagus, Yellow Squash, Matchstick Carrots, Red Bell Pepper, Red Onion, Grape or Cherry Tomatoes, and Peas
  • Other options: Broccoli, Green Beans, Spinach, Brussels Sprouts, or Zucchini
• Sauce: Butter, Garlic, Lemon Zest and Juice, Pasta Water, Heavy Cream, and Parmesan
• Seasoning: Dried Italian Seasoning, Red Pepper Flakes, Fresh Basil Leaves, and Fresh Curly Parsley

The measurements and details for all the ingredients in this recipe can be found in the recipe card down below.

How to Make Pasta Primavera

1. Boil: Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot and add a handful of salt.
2. Cook: Add the pasta and cook it until al dente. Do not drain! We will use the pasta water later for the sauce.
3. Sauté: Using a large skillet, add some olive oil and add the asparagus, onions and peppers and sauté until slightly tender and move to a plate.
4. Cook: Add the squash and carrots to the skillet, season it with salt and pepper and cook until tender but still crisp. Move the veggies to the plate with the asparagus.
5. Bloom: Add the butter to the skillet and add the garlic followed by the lemon zest, Italian seasoning to bloom the flavors. Add the tomatoes and cook until they start to brown.
6. Simmer: Add the pasta water and bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer until the tomatoes start to burst. Then add the peas.
7. Stir: Pour in the cream, lemon j

Best Sloppy Joes [+ Video]

All these years I’ve thought sloppy joes were the worst dinner ever, but after months of testing I’ve finally found a recipe I LOVE!

Every time I heard that we were having sloppy joes for lunch at school as a kid, I cringed.  I was never too excited for sloppy joes at home either. Not knowing what was in the sloppy joes made it harder for me to eat — it should have been called “Mystery Joes” or something along those lines.

For years, we tried new recipes and each one was getting closer and closer to me finally accepting the sloppy mess of a meal. Everyone went crazy for them at school and families we knew loved them, clearly I was missing something. 

We have finally found the best sloppy joe recipe EVER! Not just the best, but a totally crave-able recipe! It’s the perfect balance of sweet and salty and a little spicy.

Creating the Best Sloppy Joes Recipe

As a teenager, I watched Adam Sandler and Chris Farley perform “lunch lady land” on Saturday Night Live. Interestingly enough, this skit gave me a new outlook on sloppy joes, not sure why.

Well, a couple decades later this bad boy lands on my plate and a whole slew of feelings came rushing back: disgust, anxiety, unpleasant crunchy things, failure after failure of trying this recipe in the past, and almost complete despair of ever finding a Sloppy Joes recipe that actually tasted good.

Would this one be another flop? I sat down to the dinner table with that fake smile, that “thanks honey, this looks great” face on that I had nailed down over my childhood years. The smells began to hit my nostrils and to my surprise they were pleasant, smokey richness, grilled onions and peppers, almost like a bbq restaurant smell.

I began to feel a little excitement in this Mystery Joe. I went in for the first bite and it was all over from there, seconds and thirds landed on my plate and my taste buds were chest bumping each other.

What is a Sloppy Joe? 

To be clear, a sloppy joe is not a sandwich with chili piled on top. A sloppy joe is a sandwich consisting of ground beef or pork, onions, tomato sauce or ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings, served on a hamburger bun. 

The dish originated in the United States during the early 20th century. According to legend, a cook named Joe at Floyd Angell’s café in Sioux City, Iowa, added tomato sauce to his “loose meat” sandwiches and the “sloppy joe” sandwich was born. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Sloppy Joe Ingredients 

For this easy sloppy joe recipe, you’ll need a handful of ingredients. I bet most of these ingredients are in your pantry already! For the sloppy joe meat mixture, you’ll need…

• Butter
• Onion
• Red Bell Pepper
• Garlic
• Ground Beef

Although you can’t have sloppy joes without the meat, the sloppy joe sauce is what really makes this recipe. For the sloppy joe sauce, you’ll need…

• Brown Sugar
• Dijon Mustard
• Worcestershire Sauce
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Roasted Garlic Tomato Basil Orzo

Easy orzo pasta with roasted garlic and tomatoes and fresh basil is just what I crave on a hot summer night. In the summer, I’m all about the quick and easy meals that are light and refreshing.

When Cade and I first started the blog I was whisked off on a fun little business trip where we got to try small servings of an entire menu. During the tasting a roasted garlic pasta was served to us with huge whole garlic cloves that were heavily fragrant.

I carefully ate around them only to notice my seat mate was enjoying the entire dish, full cloves of garlic and all. “Do people really eat garlic?” I thought. I mean, I knew it went in dishes but to be an actual component felt odd.

I sliced a chunk off of a clove, swirled and twisted my noodles up around it and the fork and I’ve been sold ever since. The sweetness of the garlic comes out in the roasting time and no, it doesn’t remove the smell off your breath, but it’s worth it!!

Ingredients in this Orzo Recipe

This orzo recipe may give you garlic breath, but we are going to add a few more flavor to it! Here is what you will need:

• Cherry Tomatoes: black cherry, piccolo or Vittoria varieties are our favorites
• Olive Oil: for roasting the tomatoes and cooking the garlic
• Salt and Pepper: for seasoning the roasted tomatoes and for seasoning the whole dish
• Garlic: flavor, flavor, flavor
• Butter: helps pan roast the orzo and adds loads of flavor
• Orzo: sauteing the pasta beforehand adds a delicious nutty flavor
• Lemon Juice: fresh is best
• White Wine: we use cooking wine, but feel free to use whatever brand you want
• Chicken Stock: could easily swap this out for vegetable broth to make this dish vegetarian
• Water: helps cook the orzo
• Basil Leaves: I highly suggest using fresh basil only.
• Parmesan Cheese: freshly grated parm on top is the best
• Red Pepper Flakes: adds heat, add as much as you want!
• Pine Nuts: adds texture and flavor

The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make Roasted Garlic Tomato Basil Orzo

This recipe comes together so easily and most of the time is spent waiting for the tomatoes to roast and the orzo to cook. Here are the basic steps:

1. Roast the tomatoes.
2. Pan roast the garlic and then the orzo.
3. Let the orzo simmer in all the flavors.
4. Add the liquids to cook the pasta.
5. Season to taste and top with the pine nuts, basil and parmesan.

All the details can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post. You can also save or print the recipe from there.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

We have so many recipes that use garlic, tomatoes and basil. It is a classic combination of simple flavors that you can just never go wrong wi